Category Archives: Site news

I’ve been quiet for a while, so I wanted to pop in and give
a quick status update for Fanboy News Network.

Back in mid-June, I put the podcast and the site on hiatus
while my wife and I sold our house. We completed the move and started getting
things set up again, but life threw some complications at us. So now, several
months later, I am taking stock of what I want to do with the site.

When I stopped writing articles for FNN in 2015, I thought it
would be temporary. But the new job I started did not leave me with the time or
the brain bandwidth for writing. That has changed. So, my immediate goal is to begin
writing articles again. Site statistics show a lot of traffic on those older articles
and they are the main way that new people discover the site. If all goes to
plan, expect to see the articles start again by mid-March. As before, the
articles will be a mix of current events in geek culture, media reviews, and
examining the foundations of geek culture.

Daniel and I still intend to bring the podcast back. Our challenge
is that we now live an hour apart, instead of 15 minutes. We are looking at the
logistics and once we have figured it out, we will bring the podcast back. The
podcast will continue to center on recent events in geek culture.

I will also introduce a new feature to the site soon: videos.
With help from my friends at The
Video Nasty Project, I will start to make videos in a studio we are setting
up in my house. These videos will focus on the early movies that formed the
foundation of modern geek culture with the occasional side series and
commentary. Expect this series to start by early summer.

I look at Fanboy News Network as a labor of love. I do it
and will keep working on it because it brings me joy to do so. But as a wise man
once said, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” To that end, I
am finally working on setting up a Patreon account. Expect to see that go live
around the same time as the videos.

If you want to keep up with what I have been doing during
the hiatus, check out The
Video Nasty Project where I am a regular reviewer. I also pop in from time
to time as a guest commentator on the podcast Don’t Read the Latin.

Back in March I announced that I was putting the articles on hiatus while I worked on my script.

Well I have finished that script, so now it’s time to bring the articles back.

What you can expect is a return to the weekly alternation between articles and the podcast. All new content will still go up on Mondays.

So next week will be a new episode of the Podcast and then after that will be the first new article.

As for the script, I am getting it ready to be sent out to other people involved in the project, with the goal of getting feedback in by early October and then hopefully we can figure out how we are going to produce it. For those of you interested in follow that projects progress I will be sending out periodic updates on my Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fanboy-news-network

Thanks to a recent conversation with Jillian I have decided to make some temporary changes.

I’m currently working on a script for an audio drama that I hope to produce in the future. The problem is just as I start making headway on it I realize I have a deadline for getting an article up here and switch I have to switch gears. This is leading me to not getting much done on the script and as often as not miss deadlines.

So until further notice I am putting the articles on this site on semi hiatus. I will put up content from time to time, mostly post convention reports and the follow up reviews for The Flash and Gotham. Other than that I will focus my writing on the script.

The podcast will be starting up again in April. I am switching up the format by adding co-hosts. I have come to the conclusion that the best episodes are when I have someone else to talk to and I have some folks lined up to help make that happen on a regular basis.

It’s the beginning of a new year. Since the podcast last week covered the old year, let’s take this time to look ahead to what I hope for 2015.

I am happy with the articles for Fanboy News Network itself; I had some health and work issues towards the end of the year that meant updates were a little spotty, but overall I am happy and I need to accept that (as a primarily one man operation) I will miss updates from time to time.

For the podcast, I need to work on a couple of things. One is an equipment upgrade; I need to get a mixing board and an additional mic for when I go out in the field. Sadly I cannot afford these things right now, but I’ll keep an eye open to see if a solution presents itself. The other thing is that I need to cultivate bringing in more people who want to participate with the show. My best episodes are ones where I interact with other people. I’m not sure if that means finding a regular co-host, or just convincing more people I know to come on.

I also need to do some rearranging around my home to create a better recording environment.

So right now I am going to state that for 2015 my goal is to have two articles written each month to go up on every other Monday, with at least one podcast to fill in one of the other Mondays.

I do not want to increase the amount of writing I do as I have another project I need to double down on.

I am currently in the middle of writing a six episode audio-play. I want to finish those and start working on producing the show. If you want to follow the development of this show I will be covering it on my Tumblr.

I also need to take time to see if Patreon is something that I can use to help develop this site more.

One final goal is that I need to work on improving my skills and overall profile so that in 2016 I can start feeling comfortable submitting myself as a pro (and press) to conventions and start doing more there.

It dawned on me that I need to reassess how I have been allocating my time.

I recently took the time to look at all the projects I am working on right now:

Writing a weekly column for this site.

Producing a weekly podcast.

Developing a comedy audio series.

Voice Acting for various audio dramas.

Helping a friend edit an audio book they are producing.

Improving my studio space for audio recording.

And this is all on top of working a full time job, where we are in the middle of a major project.

Some of the above projects are more time intensive than others. The voice acting isn’t a major drain on my time overall, but usually will eat an entire day when I am needed. The audio book editing is a one off deal that will eventually end.

But I have been seeing signs that I need to readjust some things, as I am missing some weeks on Podcast production, and I often have to rush through my columns to get them to my editor on time. The thing that is getting sacrificed most often is the work on my own audio series, which is the project I really want to get going. But I also don’t really want to drop anything.

So I think I have come up with a compromise that will allow me to keep things going, without causing my work suffer.

There will still be weekly updates every Saturday, but for the time being I will be alternating between columns and podcasts. This will allow me to not have to worry about rushing through writing the columns, and give me more time to prep the podcasts. It should also allow me more time to work on the audio series scripts, in order to have something concert ready for the people I am working with on it.

And, hopefully, I will have some new exciting announcements for you in the near future.

Another year has come and gone and, with that in mind, I want to reflect on what 2013 was for me and this site.

A big change this year was getting help in the form of a beta reader/editor. First was my friend Matt Hamer, and when he could no longer do it Stax Blackmoore stepped in. It’s all part of my effort to improve the overall quality of the site and my writing.

Another big change was that, after a couple of years of talking about it, I finally launched the podcast. Like my writing, it is a learning process, but I am happy with how the first five episodes have gone.

In one of those podcasts, I declared Jennifer Lovely to be the official Fanboy News Network horror expert which, at this point, largely means that she will be making semi-regular appearances on the podcast to talk about horror.

I also worked on the audiobook The Hole Behind Midnight, which is currently being released as a podcast. I am linking to the podcast here on this site with a roughly three week delay behind its main site.

Looking at my most popular columns of the year shows me that I should stick with the variety I use now, as the top ten covered several subjects.

I found my theme months useful as a writing exercise, but the horror review month was definitely better received than the series about the first year of Magic: The Gathering.

One thing that caught me by surprise was that while I was reviewing the list of sites that refer back to his one, I found Wikipedia on the list. It turns out that the Wikipedia article on the web series The Joker Blogsused my review as a cited reference, and even quoted it. Of course that article no longer exists on Wikipedia so it was a brief moment.

And that closes the year, for 2013.

So what do I plan for 2014?

Writing wise, I want to keep up the pace of putting out an article every Saturday. The deadline is good for me and I can only improve by keeping at it.

I also want to keep trying to produce a podcast each week. I have not stabilized on a day yet, although I would like to keep it early in the week.

I want to get more people involved in the site; specifically, I want to get a regular group of contributors to appear on the podcast. As I mentioned earlier, I now have an official horror expert. I am working on arrangements for a comics expert, a film expert, and a convention expert.

I am also in the early stages of developing an audio show, that I am also planning to produce through this site. Whether that sees the light of day in 2014 or 2015 remains to be seen.

I also want to work on updating the site design a bit. I am looking into the best way to do that now.

Finally I would like to find at least one other contributor to produce semi regular content for the site.

It’s been 2 years since I started writing Fanboy News Network, and a year since we migrated from BlogSpot to the WordPress site. I figured now would be a good time to take a look at what we are doing and what plans are for the future. I also thought for once I would talk about some other projects I am working on.

Last year I set the goal of posting an article every Saturday. For the most part I have kept to that, with just a few hiccups, and I think that will be the schedule for the foreseeable future. It balances my writing with my work schedule and the rest of my life.

I plan on continuing with the basic format that I have been using, but I want to refine my categories a bit more, as well as set up some article series I want to work on.

Article will still be the category for the general articles I write, and be the general catch-all.

Review will continue to be used for anything I cover where I use a rating system. More on that below.

Geek Capital of the World will still cover any geek culture subjects that are specific to Seattle.

Storytime will be any time I cover an event from my past related to geek culture, with emphasis on my time as an employee of Wizards of the Coast, or when I was part of the Camarilla board of directors.

Podcast will be used for when I repost podcasts that I am part of. More on Podcast plans below.

But I am adding the following new categories.

Horror will be for articles I write covering Universal Horror or related subjects.

Web Series will cover the growing field original web content.

Geek Icons will be for a new series I will be doing on people who were pioneers or significant figures in geek culture.

Conventions will be for articles specifically about geek centric conventions.

Industry will be for articles that cover the various businesses that cater to geek culture such as the comic companies or film studios.

Site news, for stuff like this.

You should see the new categories now.

Now as for what other projects I have in the pipeline.

I am also working on some writing projects that I hope will develop into something more serious. One is a script for a Horror Host-type show based on a line I wrote in my Horror Host article. The other is a short story that keeps growing longer. As a writer, I find I am drawn to urban fantasy. Right now my big goal here is to have a story ready to submit to next year’s Norwescon writer’s workshop.

I am hosting a monthly writing group to help develop more of these skills.

I am also getting involved with voice acting and amateur audio drama. I’ve been posting episodes of the Hermes and Hekate Roadshow already. If all goes according to plan, I will be voicing a character in the second season.

I am working with Julie Hoverson of 19 Nocturne Boulevardon some projects. She has also offered to teach me how to mix an audio drama. This will help with other projects I have in the works, including getting a Fanboy News Network podcast off the ground.

Finally I wanted to clarify the rating system I am using in reviews. I am using an A-F format, but it was pointed out that I should clarify what each grade means. So here is what I will be using going forward:

A: Top flight effort that can be enjoyed by anyone. Fans should go through the roof. If it is a movie, viewable multiple times in the theater. Must own the DVD

B: Superior effort. Fans will enjoy it, and non-fans will at least feel it was not a waste of time. If it is a movie would watch once in the theater. Would buy the DVD

C: An average effort. Fans will like it and not feel it was a waste of time. Non-fans may be lukewarm to it. Decent but flawed. If a movie no problem seeing in the theater. Would pass on buying the DVD

D: A disappointing effort. Serious flaws. No one will make any effort to see it again. Most will feel it is a waste of time. If seen in the theater would feel it was a waste of time. Would not buy the DVD

F: A complete waste of time. A project that should not have been made. Would consider asking for my money back at the theater.

So there you have it; where we stand and some hopes for the upcoming year. Thank you for checking us out and I hope you continue to enjoy what you see.

What is the site about.

This site is an exploration of Geek Culture, featuring reviews, commentary,videos, podcasts and other geeky nonsense

About Me

I am a longtime fan of science fiction, fantasy, comic books, gaming and a podcasting enthusiast. Also a former Employee of Wizards of the Coast, and one of the founding members of the Camarilla Fan organization. In addition to my work here I am a reviewer on the Youtube series The Video Nasty Project and a frequent contributor to the horror movie podcast Don't Read the Latin.
Follow me on Twitter @caliban1227.
Email: Caliban@fanboynewsnetwork.com
Tumblr: http://fanboy-news-network.tumblr.com/